Movie inspires teen to raise bomb scare

Cops arrest 14-yr-old for making a hoax call informing them of a bomb in a local; the Std IX student said he was inspired by A Wednesday

A 14-year-old Thane boy took the life-imitating-art theory so far beyond the line that he had the city's railway police going through the roof.

Mumbai cops, on their toes after the high alert that terrorists might carryout a 9/11-type attack in the city, jumped to action after they got a call on September 1, informing them that a CST-bound Thane train has a bomb aboard. Security was upped at the stations; officials deployed at every vulnerable spot; everybody getting off from the train frisked. Yet, no explosives were found. After investigating, cops learned that it was a prank call made by a Std IX student of a convent school in Thane.

The GRP Crime Branch has arrested the 14-year-old boy who had called up '100', the number of the Mumbai police, and told cops of the fictional bomb. He told the police that he made the call after watching Anupam Kher-starrer A Wednesday, which depicts the story of a man who holds the Mumbai police to ransom after deploying bombs at five locations. The boy said he got swayed by the plot and made the call for kicks, and then surfed the news channels to see if he had created any ripples.

"The call came at 12.40 pm on September 1. A CST-bound local starts from Thane at 13:12, and another one at 14:56. We Crime Branch checked passengers on both trains. Police personnel were deployed at stations just to keep an eye on any suspicious movement," said an officer from Thane GRP.

Faux frightMeanwhile, efforts were on to trace the call. "Under the guidance of GRP Commissioner Prabhat Kumar, we started investigating and tracing the call," said Anil Mane, senior police inspector of Crime branch. "We learnt that the number from which the call came belonged to one Azad Kalandar Ali, a resident of Dharavi. After we traced him, he told us that he had sold the cell phone to a shopkeeper five years ago. Since the SIM card was working, we somehow managed to trace the accused," said Mane.

And then came the shocker. "We were surprised to see that the accused was just a 14-year-old studying in Standard IX in a Thane school. We arrested him and produced him in front of a Bhiwandi juvenile court. He was booked under Sections 177, 182, 505 (1), 507 of the Indian Penal Code for giving false information by anonymous communication," said Mane.

The Mumbai police is already on tenterhooks, what with the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. "After the IB issued the alert that a plane attack might take place in Mumbai, we are already on alert," said the police officer from Dadar GRP.